At the height of the pandemic, Carmen’s Best, the homegrown premium ice cream brand, came close to closing for good. Its founder is now telling the story of how a chance meeting helped save the business.
Francisco “Paco” Magsaysay launched Beyond the Scoop: The Carmen’s Best Story last week. In interviews with Bilyonaryo and The Philippine Star, he looked back on how the brand ended up with Manuel V. Pangilinan’s Metro Pacific Group.
“We Were Thinking of Closing”
In 2021, the pandemic wiped out about 80 percent of Carmen’s Best’s normal sales, Bilyonaryo reported. Airlines and coffee shops were major customers, while flights were grounded and cafés were shut.
“We were only doing 20 percent of our normal sales, but we were still paying our staff 100 percent,” Magsaysay told Bilyonaryo. The family eventually used personal money to cover salaries.
“It was a very difficult time, and it was a time that I thought, well, it looks like this is it. We’re going to shut down,” he said. “I told the board that we’re already spending our personal money to pay the salaries, maybe it’s time to close.”
The board had one practical reason to hold on.
“The board said, don’t do it yet, because we’re still milking the cows,” Magsaysay recalled. “If you’re going to milk the cows, you’re going to end up throwing away the milk, right?”
A Meeting at P-Noy’s Wake
The turnaround started by chance.
In 2021, Magsaysay and his father, former senator Ramon Magsaysay Jr., attended the wake of former President Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III. There, they ran into Rogelio “Babes” Singson, then president and CEO of Metro Pacific Water.
“Babes said, Paco, are you open to an investment with MPIC? I said, yes, I’m open,” Magsaysay recalled. “I didn’t know that anyone was interested to even invest in our company.”
He said he had no broker and was not looking for an investor.
That conversation eventually led to Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) taking control of the brand. Philstar reported that in 2022, Metro Pacific Agro Ventures, the Metro Pacific Group’s agricultural arm, acquired a controlling 51 percent stake in Carmen’s Best and the rest of its dairy group.
“God-Sent”
“At that time, that was something that I felt was God-sent because we were about to close,” Magsaysay said. “I’m very grateful that they came into our company and they bailed us out.”
Sales Up More Than 100 Percent
Magsaysay, who remains a minority owner but no longer runs the company, told The STAR that Carmen’s Best sales have increased by more than 100 percent since the Metro Pacific Group came in.
“It has grown a lot more than when I was handling it,” he said. “Because with a group like Metro Pacific, their network is quite vast and when it comes to negotiations, their leverage is on a different level.”
He also shared a lighter memory. Pangilinan’s sweet tooth may have been one reason the tycoon pursued the brand, Magsaysay said.
“I remember there was one time I visited him (Pangilinan) and I brought him a new flavor, it was my Kakigori flavor. And I thought he was just going to eat one or two spoons, but when our meeting ended, he finished the whole thing.”
Beyond the “Scoop”
Carmen’s Best started in 2007 on a small farm in Laguna and is named after Magsaysay’s only daughter, Carmen, who now lives in the United States, Philstar reported.
The book is aimed at aspiring entrepreneurs and people in or thinking of getting into business.
In it, Magsaysay describes selling to the MVP Group as both a blessing and a challenge, comparing it to watching a child leave home for college.
“You’re proud. You’re excited for what’s ahead. But at the same time, you know things will never quite be the same again,” he said, according to Philstar.
